Survey: Charging for Meetup

Survey: Charging for Meetup

Hi

A lot of folks complain they don't get a seat in BangPypers meet-up due to
overwhelming response.Every meetup has at least 50 to 75 waitlisted
participants.
For IoT workshop organized on March, 267 people showed interest. The venue
limit was only 60.

The general suggestion was positive to charge for the meetup. All the
organizers agreed to involve the broad audience. Hence consider answering
the question.
Depending on the survey result, we will decide how to proceed and try the
outcome as experiment unless the outcome is same as the current method.

Feel to contact any of the co-organizers or drop an email on the mailing
list.

Re: Survey: Charging for Meetup

> Hi
>
> A lot of folks complain they don't get a seat in BangPypers meet-up due
> to overwhelming response.Every meetup has at least 50 to 75 waitlisted
> participants.
> For IoT workshop organized on March, 267 people showed interest. The venue
> limit was only 60.
>
> One of the members suggested charging a nominal fee. There was a
> discussion in BangPypers mailing list. Here is the link to the entire
> decision https://mail.python.org/pipermail/bangpypers/2017-March/> 011708.html. Please have a look.
>
> The general suggestion was positive to charge for the meetup. All the
> organizers agreed to involve the broad audience. Hence consider answering
> the question.
> Depending on the survey result, we will decide how to proceed and try the
> outcome as experiment unless the outcome is same as the current method.
>
> Feel to contact any of the co-organizers or drop an email on the mailing
> list.
>
> Please take 30 seconds to fill the survey [0].
>

Thank you to everyone who took the time to cast their opinion. 170 folks
casted their views. Here is the link to the screenshot of the result [0].

Summary of the result:

- 33.5% voted for "I am happy to pay a nominal fee of 100 INR. I want to
receive a refund if I attend the meetup. In case of absence, BangPypers can
use the money for other purposes like logistics."
- 16.5% voted for "I am not interested to pay the nominal fee to attend
meet-up. I'm happy with current method of capping the RSVPs."
- 40.6% voted for "I am happy to pay a nominal fee of 100 INR. Let
BangPypers use the fund to manage logistics."
- 9.4% voted for "Don't limit RSVP. I am happy to leave the premise if I
don't get a seat in the venue and adhere to the host venue limit"

We will go ahead option 3. As mentioned in the previous conversation, there
is no profit motive and will be an experimental initiative.

Relevant queries from survey

> If you charge (say) will the money go to PSF or bangpypers? Also, does
charging a fee makes the organizers run into any tax related issues, which
would be an additional hassle for the organizers.

The organizers wrote an email to PSSI Board seeking permission to
facilitate fee collection. The money will reach PSSI bank account and then
disbursed as per need. We will share the BangPypers inflow and outflow
transaction sheet to the members.

> Can I cancel the ticket?

Yes, you will be able to cancel the ticket. Depending on the platform, the
cancellation rules will be laid down.

> Collecting a fee may exclude students without the means to pay online.

The payment platform will include all major payment options like
NetBanking, Credit Cards, Debit Cards, etc. In case, the students don't
have an option to pay online; we will make an exemption. The students can
write to us or leave a message in meetup group with their details. There
won't be any on spot cash collection.

> Will all the future meetups charged?

No. As we said, earlier this is an experimental initiative. We will charge
for few meetups, i.e., Three meetups to see how is the turnout and what do
people say, etc. We will have free meetups as well. Next steps will depend
on the observation,